"the Importance Of Space Strategy"

The Space Frontier Foundation Berin Szoka Chairman of the Board SpaceFrontier.org [email protected]

The Importance of Strategy Alice: Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here? The Cheshire Cat: That depends a good deal on where you want to get to. Alice: I don't know where… The Cheshire Cat: Then it doesn't matter which way you go. Alice in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll (1865)

Our Strategic Perspective: Realistic Revolutionaries 

Our goals are revolutionary: 

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To enable the opening of the space frontier to human settlement as rapidly as possible To create a freer and more prosperous life for each generation by using the unlimited energy and material resources of space

But we are also realists:  

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“Space is a place, not a program” Governments can help enable and support the opening of the space frontier, but only the private sector can make space projects economically sustainable An innovative “NewSpace” industry must lead the way

Our History  

U.S.-based non-profit citizens’ advocacy organization with members around the world Founded in 1988 based on three principles: 

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It is technically possible to realize their shared vision of largescale industrialization and settlement of the inner solar system This was not happening (and couldn't happen) under the status quo: a centrally-planned U.S. government space program with exclusive access to space Our Founders took on the task of replacing the existing bureaucratic program with an entrepreneurial, frontier-opening global and inclusive enterprise, primarily by working “on the outside” to promote radical reform of U.S. space policy

The High Frontier by Gerard O’Neill (1976) 

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Focus: building large scale settlements in free space Vision: a sustainable economy involving two key elements 

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Resources from the Moon and asteroids Using those resources to construct space-based solar power satellites capable of delivering cheap energy from Earth orbit

The Broader Vision of the Space Frontier 

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Cheaper and more capable satellites to send data through space (communications) and from space (remote sensing) Personal spaceflight for the experience of space Zero-G research Zero-G manufacturing Point-to-point transportation

The Catalyst: Cheap Access to Space 

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The business case for Space-Based Solar Power, like many space projects, requires cheaper access to space The significance of personal spaceflight: lowering launch costs and thus enabling other NewSpace business models

What Can Governments Do?  

Enable an industry, instead of “building a program” Buy commercial space services when available 

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The Kelly Airmail Act of 1925 – the U.S. Government spurred development of commercial aviation by buying mail delivery services from commercial providers

Help spur the development of new services with:     

Prizes (Ansari X-Prize and NASA’s Centennial Challenges) Technology demonstration projects (NASA’s COTS) Partnering with industry (NASA’s Space Act Agreements, Russia’s Rosaviacosmos) Funding research and development (X-vehicles, NACA, DARPA) Tax incentives (“Zero G, Zero Tax”)

The Opportunity for the U.A.E. 

To lead international collaboration on space projects by attracting talent and investment from all over the world 

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The U.S. Government has made international collaboration with Americans prohibitively difficult with strict export control laws (ITAR) Ironically, this approach has had largely the opposite of its intended effect by undermining U.S. leadership in space

The Ultimate Resource: Innovation 

Talent is attracted by 

Bold vision, such as   

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Settling the space frontier Making the world cleaner and greener Providing cheap, reliable energy

Low taxes Minimal regulations Subsidized infrastructure Personal freedoms

Talent produces results

A Space Strategy for the U.A.E. 

Goal: To become the premiere anchor of the NewSpace economy   

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A nexus of investment and innovation A space port A registry for space businesses

Focus on  

Promoting Cheap Access to Space (CATS) Enabling the businesses made possible by CATS

Practical Steps for the U.A.E. 

Recognize  

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Property rights in space resources Salvage rights in space objects

Learn from the mistakes of the U.S. Instead of building a space program in the model of NASA, create institutions to enable NewSpace     

NASA’s predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (1915-1958), whose mission was to advance aeronautical technology NASA’s Institute for Advanced Concepts (1998-2007) A Space Development Agency A second International Space University Campus with heavy R&D focus Institutes for researching    

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Launch & propulsion technologies Space-based solar power The use of space resources Deflection and mining of Near Earth Objects

Recruit foreign intellectual capital with targeted visas

More About the Space Frontier Foundation

Leadership 

Founders   

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Jim Muncy Rick Tumlinson Bob Werb - Treasurer

Board of Directors:          

Berin Szoka - Chairman Reda Anderson A.C. Charania Jim Muncy Mike Mealling Tom Olson Misuzu Onuki (Japan) Krysta Paradis Megan Seals William Watson

Projects 

Community Building

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Public NewSpace Education

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Policy Statements – Truthsaying

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Technology Investigation

Community Building 

Annual “NewSpace” Conferences 

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Space Investment Symposiums 

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Attended by NewSpace CEOs, investors, NASA leadership, U.S. & international government leaders, U.S. military Partners with Boeing, National Space Society, 62 Mile Club, and others

Networking Events 

New York City, Paris, Tokyo, Strasbourg, Glasgow, Munich, L.A., Amsterdam, Dallas, San Jose, D.C., Las Vegas, Abu Dhabi, and other locations around the world

Public NewSpace Education 

Teachers in Space Program – aiming to bring hundreds of “astronaut teachers” into the classroom 

Five flights donated by five different private suborbital service providers

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NewSpace News – The NewSpace Portal with over 90 entrepreneurial space company links and briefings on the top NewSpace stories

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SpaceContest.org – $3500 in cash Prizes to the top YouTube Videos answering the question, “What should the future of spaceflight be?”

Policy Statements 

Truthsaying 

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White Papers 

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Calling attention to the U.S. Government’s failures (e.g., Ares) Supporting EELV and COTS over Ares for U.S. access to ISS and NASA’s return to the Moon

Media Statements  

Advocating funding and expansion of COTS-D Calling for further development of Space-Based Solar Power

Technology Investigation: Space-Based Solar Power  

Since 2001 the Space Frontier Foundation sponsored U.S. Senate Roundtables on Space Solar Power SBSP Project Manager: Margo Deckard  

CEO of Space Policy Consulting, Inc. Principal investigator for a NASA-funded study in 2000 that reintroduced SBSP to the environmental community, and gathered input from this community on perceived costs and benefits

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Space-Based Solar Power Project History Page: www.space-frontier.org/Projects/spacesolarpower

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Space Solar Power: A Public Discussion Sponsored by the Space Frontier Foundation (85,452 hits as of Nov. 6, 2008) spacesolarpower.wordpress.com Resulting NSSO Report: www.space-frontier.org/Presentations/SBSPreport.html

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Accomplishments 

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In addition to our formal Projects, the Foundation and its members work throughout the space, science and business communities The Foundation’s Advocates (the core members who elect the Board) have been leaders in a wide range of space ventures

www.space-frontier.org/accomplishments.html

Annual Conference 

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NewSpace 2009 (July 17-20, 2009) at NASA Ames (California) The Space Frontier Foundation has held its conferences over the Apollo 11 anniversary for the past twenty years and looks forward to holding celebrating the 40th Anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing on July 20th, 2009